A Solid Place To Stand
by Elin B
Summary: A brief two-parter on the benefits and perils of trusting and being trusted, from Usopp's POV (pre-Alabasta) and Robin's (end of Skypiea).
1. The Nature of Trust

Author's Notes: This was originally written for the prompt "trust" on a chaos thread and has now been polished up a little. Suggestions for improvement and other feedback are very welcome. As the summary indicates, the first part is set right before Alabasta and the second towards the end of Skypiea.

Disclaimer: The characters and situations of One Piece are owned by their creator Eiichiro Oda and are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fic is not to be used for profit in any way and should not be reposted elsewhere without the writer's approval.

A Solid Place To Stand

-a One Piece fanfic

by Elin B

-x-x-x-x-

What did you need in order to become a pirate? What was it that made people leave their homes behind and set sail for adventure?

Of course you needed courage, Usopp thought, looking down from the crow's nest at what he could see of their little ship and the sea in the darkness. If you didn't have that you'd never get past that crippling fear of the unknown tying you down. And you needed a big dream in the first place, one you couldn't fulfil at home – and a strong desire to seek out the dream. But wasn't there something else?

He got that kind of questions in his head sometimes, especially times like these when he took the watch in the small hours. He'd start thinking big but fumbling thoughts about the world and sea and the endless horizon, but also of his crewmates and himself, what had made them all come together like this.

Tonight was warm, almost balmy, with no need for a blanket. He figured they were probably close to Alabasta by now. Good thing, too, because they were running out of food.

Merry was creaking gently underneath him, wood and rope and furled canvas all letting out different small sounds, comforting in their familiarity by now.

You needed trust, thought Usopp. A captain and crewmates you could trust beside you; a ship you could trust to take you over the waves. Like Merry. The sea was so big and deep and cold, so wondrous and scary and amazing; and you couldn't trust it, not ever. Here on the Grand Line, you couldn't trust compasses or the weather, either. But Nami trusted the log pose and they all trusted her. So that worked out.

It had been easy for him, he figured – he'd had no shackling obligations or troubling memories holding him back, and after fighting together that first time it was clear that Luffy and Zoro and Nami were very trustworthy. Trusting yourself was much harder, but once he knew he didn't always fall short under pressure, that he'd managed to at least _help_ save Kaya and the village, he could let hope stand in for confidence.

Nami must have had it much harder, with so much more holding her back. She'd needed to understand Luffy's full trust in _her_, before she could really join them. Although at first she'd tried to throw that trust away... Well, maybe what you thought you wanted wasn't always what you needed.

That sounded good enough, he thought, nodding wisely and feeling quite deep and philosophical. Then he leaned his chin on his palm, elbow on railing, and yawned mightily. He rubbed his heavy eyelids and wondered idly how much time might be left on his shift and also when he'd be able to find rotten eggs next. Sanji had refused to let him keep any from Chopper's island and Usopp couldn't really fault him – he had to agree that food took precedence over ammunition.

You needed to trust the world, too, he thought suddenly. Trust the ground to be there when you walked on it. Trust grass to grow and clouds to float and rain to fall... trust the sun, and the winds, and everything, to be what they were. In that way, even the sea, come to think of it – it would never keep you safe, but it would still be itself, immense and marvellous. You needed to trust Adventure...

Those thoughts were getting a little too big for him now, this late at night: he felt them slipping, sliding away from his grasp as he yawned again and his stomach growled faintly. He probably shouldn't think on it so much. Just follow your heart, right? And try to summon your guts and use your head when you had to. Ignore the little voice deep inside that mumbled that maybe _he _wasn't much to bank on, hadn't truly earned all that trust...

Better push that down. There was no use in thinking like that, and Luffy was just made of trust, anyway, as if it was a component of rubber. No help for it.

Down below, a door slid open and footsteps sounded across the deck. He peered down. It was a bit hard to see, but it looked like Vivi was getting up here to relieve him. The sky seemed just a bit lighter than before. It was even warmer than it had been yesterday.

And they were heading towards a confrontation with a Shichibukai and his whole criminal organisation. He shuddered, feeling cold with fear. He had to hope there wouldn't be much fighting and Vivi would be able to convince her people of the truth she'd find out. Because if that didn't happen, he really really didn't know how they'd be able to survive, let alone win.

He took a deep breath and tried to summon strength in his scared and sleep-addled head, in his heavy limbs, so he'd be able to greet Vivi with a smile and climb down without any problem. _It will be all right,_ he told himself. _Luffy's strong enough, it will work out fine._

And he had duties to take care of, after all! For instance, now that Chopper was here, they'd finally acquired a crewmate who kept believing everything Usopp told him, taking unearned trust to the extreme – well, clearly this meant Usopp now needed to make his lies as interesting, cool and entertaining as possible. It was, after all, the very least he could do.


	2. The Perils of Trust

Looking over at her crewmate with a friendly nod, Robin judged that Usopp probably wouldn't remember too much of the party's later stages in the morning. Like most everyone around them in this victory feast around the bonfire, he had drank too much and danced too much and sung too much, all giddy with relief and triumph and the need to celebrate.

Now he'd come over on unsteady legs to where Robin was sitting a little bit away from the fire, one near-empty tankard on the grass beside her.

"Hey, where's Zoro?" said Usopp with slightly slurred speech, looking around.

"Oh, he's not here. He's having a drinking contest with one of the Shandians," said Robin, nodding toward the other side of the bonfire.

"Oh. Oh, okay." Usopp paused at that, frowning in indecision. He was holding a tankard in one hand and one chopstick in another, which he were twirling aimlessly. "Was talking about it with Nami. We wanted to see 'f we could get him into the vic'ry dance..." Then he shrugged and plopped himself down easily right next to her. "But he _never _wants to dance, so I guess not."

Robin smiled at him. "Some of us are like that."

"Oh. Yeah. You too, right?" Usopp gave her a curious look. "Hey, are you sure you don't wanna dance, Robin? C'me on! It's fun!" He gestured broadly towards the bonfire. The ranks had thinned, but there were still plenty of pirates, Shandians, Skypieans, and even forest wolves drumming and dancing around it.

She just smiled back and shook her head.

"Aw. Ah, well." Usopp didn't try again. He sat back, looking up into the sky and blowing out air thoughtfully.

Robin took her tankard and sipped from the remaining rum, as if showing good will. It wasn't hard to keep grinning at all. It felt so good not just knowing you were alive but that everyone else was, too; everyone on your... on your team, so to speak. They'd all fought hard and had the bruises and burns to show for it, but they were all right. And their enemy was beaten and gone.

"Hey, Robin..." said Usopp now, in a slower tone. He was still looking up at the stars. "I didn't ever tell you, did I?"

"Hmm?" said Robin, leaning her head a bit to the side as she looked over at him. "Tell me what?"

"Uh." He laughed, clearly a little embarrassed despite his tipsy state. "Thank you."

She blinked, genuinely puzzled. "For...?"

Now he looked at her again, grinning sheepishly. "For saving my life, o' course! You know, when I took a swim down in the White Sea and fell through the clouds, and you and Luffy pulled me up! I'dda died if you hadn't done that!"

"Oh. ...Right." Robin felt taken aback. There'd been so many things that had happened, since then: she had all but forgotten about it.

Usopp went on a bit more quietly, "Yeah. Really, so... thanks. And, uh, sorry I forgot."

"There's no need for that," said Robin slowly. "It wasn't hard..." Well, it had taken quite a bit of concentration and some very speedy searching through the clouds, but still... "I was in no danger."

Usopp shrugged. "You saved me, you and Luffy. That's what matters. Uh." He looked pensive again. "Y'know, I was thinking before, a while back... Like trust, y'know, you think the ground's always gonna be there, or water's always gonna hold you up – Bottom's not s'posed to drop out of it, like that. Man, that was scaaary."

Robin smiled despite feeling somewhat uncomfortable. She wondered if that frank admission, days after the event, was due to all the rum he'd imbibed. Or perhaps he was simply in an unusually sincere mood. "Well, you're welcome, then," she said in a low voice. "But really, think nothing of it. My pleasure."

"Okay!" He gave her a big grin from ear to ear. "Anyway, way I figure... way I figure _now_, is that it doesn't matter if there's no ground there, long as there are arms there to catch you, y'know?" He leaned back on his elbows, putting one foot on the other knee.

Robin blinked again, looking over at him. _My god. He seems to trust me completely, now. Just because I saved his life at no cost to myself..._ She swallowed tightly. As if anyone with malicious intentions wouldn't have done exactly the same thing in that situation, in order to keep up their cover...! _These people are just hopelessly gullible._ Only Zoro showed healthily suspicious thinking, and even he hadn't given her any of his "I'm-watching-you" looks at any time after the end of the battle.

"Oh! What a cool song!" Usopp looked up, then bounced to his feet to the new rhythm and the melody filling the air, sung by young Skypieans. "I've just gotta... one more dance! Seeya, Robin!" And he stumbled off, skipping on unsteady legs.

She emptied the tankard; then looked around to see if there was anything else to drink, or to eat. His trust should have made her pleased, she supposed. But instead it sat uneasily inside her, like something too hot and sharp, stinging her. Well, some more rum would take care of it.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Later, that same night, she woke up to find Nami's head resting on her shoulder in sleep, and Chopper was curling up right next to her. Robin kept herself still, a well-honed self-control making sure she didn't start or flinch. At first she stayed put, then she slowly, carefully lifted Nami away without waking her.

Again, she felt that sharp, burning feeling in her chest. iToo much trust./i She sat quietly, letting the reindeer be where he was for now.

The stars glittered high above her. She took in the smells of Upper Yard around her, the snores of her crewmates and other partygoers; thought of all the great ruins around her that she'd check out thoroughly tomorrow. Images from the fighting during the long day before flashed through her mind, intense and powerful.

She hugged her knees. The thought of trust like this being broken one day, them turning against her... she couldn't bear it. It hurt.

_I wonder how long it will be until I have to leave them._


End file.
